1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electronic device provided with a light emitting indicator, a panel structure thereof, and a method of mounting the indicator in the electronic device.
2. Description of the Related Art
Currently, electronic devices include light emitting indicators provided on their panels and turn them on/off to display their various operating states, setting states, or selecting states such as ON/OFF of power sources, occurrence/non-occurrence of abnormal situations, press/non-press of operation buttons, and so on.
This indicator is referred also to as an indicator light, display for indication, or pilot lamp.
For a light emitting unit of such a light emitting indicator, a light emitting diode (LED) is often used.
As shown in FIG. 8, an LED 101 is composed of a light emitting portion 111 that is a lens made of a transparent resin with a semiconductor element embedded therein and two terminals 112 and 113 that are an anode lead and a cathode lead for applying voltage to the semiconductor element. Typically, on a rear surface 103b side of a panel 103, a circuit board 104 is placed parallel to the panel 103 with a space intervening therebetween, the terminals 112 and 113 of the LED 101 are inserted into through holes 141 in the circuit board 104 and soldered, and the light emitting portion 111 is provided in such a manner to pass through a through hole 131 provided in the panel 103 and slightly project above from a front surface 103a of the panel 103.
In this case, however, when the space between the panel 103 and circuit board 104 is increased, the terminals 112 and 113 need to be made longer, and as a result, the light emitting portion 111 becomes unstable to easily move upward and downward. The light emitting portion 111 is therefore bonded and fixed to the panel 103 with an adhesive or the like, leading to a marred appearance of the electronic device due to the adhesive running over.
Accordingly, it has been conventionally implemented that a spacer 102 is provided around the terminals 112 and 113 and fixed at the circuit board 104 to support the light emitting portion 111 as shown in FIG. 9. In this case, the spacer 102 cannot be seen from the front surface 103a side of the panel 103, without marring the appearance of the electronic device.
Further, as shown in FIG. 10, there also is a light indicator which is composed of an LED 101 being a light emitting unit, a plastic dome-shaped molded lens 105 with a convex lens portion 105a provided at the center of its upper end surface, and a guide 106.
In this case, a light emitting portion 111 of the LED 101 is mounted to come into contact with a circuit board 104 and covered with the molded lens 105, and the convex lens portion 105a is provided in such a manner to pass through a through hole 131 and slightly project above from a front surface 103 a of a panel 103. Accordingly, the light emitting portion 111 of the LED 101 can be fixed without marring the appearance of the electronic device.
It should be noted that light emitted by the light emitting portion 111 of the LED 101 is conducted to the front surface of the panel 103 via the convex lens portion 105a of the molded lens 105. Besides, the guide 106 is a member for positioning the molded lens 105 when it is mounted.
In the case shown in FIG. 9, however, it is necessary to align, through fine adjustment, the position of the through hole 131 provided in the panel 103 with the positions of the LED 101 and spacer 102 in three directions (two horizontal and one vertical directions). Therefore, assembly which should be performed with high accuracy increases the number of steps, leading to a problem that cost is increased.
On the other hand, in the case shown in FIG. 10, a mold is required to produce the molded lens 105, and it is also necessary to change the shape of the molded lens 105 in accordance with the space and angle between the panel 103 and the circuit board 104, leading to a problem that the cost is increased. In particular, when a plurality of indicators are installed in an electronic device whose panel 103 and circuit board 104 are not parallel to each other, many kinds of molded lenses 105 are required, resulting in very high cost.
Further, positioning guides 106 are required to install the molded lenses 105, presenting a problem that not only the structure becomes complex because of the increased number of indicators but also their mounting steps become complicated.